After the Foothills School Division announced the plans to build two different high schools with one to be placed in Aldersyde and the other on the new land purchased by the Town of Okotoks on the north side, one town councillor is speaking out against the division.

Tanya Thorn isn't impressed with the decision to build two schools, splitting students of Okotoks away from town with the Aldersyde site.

She says the location of 1st stage school shouldn't be in Aldersyde, but rather where students are in living, which is in the town itself.

"Schools belong in communities, they do not belong outside of communities and the whole point of it is to build a community around a school and I believe our community should be consulted on this decision," Thorn says.

"It's a major decision and the fact that they're not talking to the citizens of our community is disappointing."

The plan for the two high schools is to have the Aldersyde high school be the first school built followed by the school that would be on the land bought by the town.

She says the Town isn't a fan of waiting for a school that's not even a close priority for the division.

"We've gone out and purchased land, and so their new proposal is to put a phase II high school on it," Thorn says. "That high school hasn't got any funding allocated to it yet, it's not even on the government's books at the moment so they're asking us to hold land that we purchased with tax-payer dollars for an indefinite period, and I struggle with that."

Thorn hopes there will be more discussions between the town and the division before going ahead with the two high school plan.

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